Last week four top-tier NA and EU teams competed in the final four of the San Jose IEM. TSM, UOL, ALL, and C9 were the four teams that will compete in the upcoming LCS season (should start late January-early February). Their were some very entertaining matches and some surprised during the games. If you want to see the matches click here. There will be some spoilers in the next few paragraphs so you have been warned. I’m going to give my recap on what I saw from those four teams and how it will apply to fantasy value for the upcoming LCS season.

TSM – Overall TSM was disappointing in the tournament. They lost in all phases of the game, early, mid, late, and in champ select. Despite them playing bad they still are going to be a top team in NA. Overall they just have really good players. WildTurtle and Lustboy finally look like they are getting some synergy and I think they will do great this season in Fantasy. Bjergsen and Santorin (TSM’s new jungler) played the worst of all 10 players during their games, but Bjergsen is still good and should be a high pick in your fantasy draft. Especially since he loves to makes plays and that will lead to fantasy points. I’m not sure how Santorin will be so I will probably be looking at other junglers in my drafts. Dyrus was his usual consistent self. Was able to CS and make impacts on the games like he always does, but was unable to go into carry mode like he did in the LCS finals last split. I would still say he is a top 5 top laner for the upcoming season.

Alliance – Alliance proved again they will be a force to be reckoned with in the EU LCS, but C9 showed they still have weakness in their shot calling, objective control, and their map rotations (MonteCristo’s favorite). I think they will be a team you should look for because they will win a lot of games on their ability to play the game. I also think all but one of the laners should be high priority picks in your draft. Wicked, played great the first two games than poorly the final game, but I do think he will most likely be a 2nd tier top laner once the season is over. In the new meta top laners will most likely be on an island so you want guys who can duel or survive well and I don’t think Wicked is great at either, but he will be able to score high because of his team fighting. I’ve never thought Shook (jungler) was that good, and in these three games he proved me right. I would say out of all of the players on Alliance Shook is just a mid to low tier jungler. Froggen is still a farming machine and is a high skill player he will be a great early pick in your draft. Rekkles was a man among boys in the three games, all three games he tried to keep his team in it, but C9 was too much. If Rekkles plays like he did that weekend during the season he will finish 1 or 2 in total points. Nyph will also benefit from Rekkles, and since supports won’t be high scorers in fantasy you want to get the supports of high scoring ADC’s to benefit from the high assist number.

UOL – Unicorns of Love were the team that created the most excitement during the tournament. They showed that they will be a good team in the EU LCS, and I even think they could potentially put a C9 2013 summer split type run this split. They are innovative and unafraid to take chances. That forces other teams to be reactive and usually teams aren’t good at reacting to new things. I might be looking to grab them as my team in this season’s fantasy draft. These were the first 5 games I have ever seen from UOL, so I don’t have a ton of stats or knowledge to back up my claims. It seems like all 5 of their players will be quality fantasy stars. The 2 that will probably rise above the rest is their Top laner, Vizicsacsi, and their jungler, Kikis. I think the EU has weaker top and junglers in comparison to NA so these two could be top 3 at those positions year one in the EU.

C9 – Cloud 9 continues to do what they have done since they arrived on the LCS scene back in early 2013, and that is win and win fairly convincingly. The one weakness I saw in them this tournament was they seemed to slow play their leads allowing for the other team to stick around longer than they should, and Balls wasn’t the same force we have seen from him. Every single one of their players is a great fantasy contributor because they are still the best team fighting team in NA and EU (in my opinion). Two of their players look like they will be fantasy stars this season and that is Meteos (jungler) and Sneaky (ADC). Meteos played as good as you can out of the Jungle and showed how to carry games on the new patch as junglers. He was putting early pressure in lanes, controlling objectives and because he is such a vision minded jungler he was able to gain more information on the enemy team because of the new jungle timers. Meteos was a complete beast and I’d expect him to be a top 2 jungler in overall points this season. Sneaky is continuing his rise as one of the best ADCs in the world. He probably isn’t there yet but he continues to makes plays, finish off kills, and farm at a high level. He should be a highly contested AD pick in your draft.

Overall, I think all four teams will have great fantasy potential and I would imagine will finish top 4 of the NA and EU respectively. Who do you think will bring the most fantasy value this upcoming year Sneaky or Rekkles? Will UOL be a force in the EU scene or just a flash in the pan? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Don’t forget to follow on Twitter, Facebook, or through WordPress to get notified when I post again. Have a great day.

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